Inside CH Robinson's AI Shipping Classification Agent Launch

As the overhaul of national freight classifications takes effect on 19 July, C.H. Robinson is rolling out a new AI agent aimed squarely at smoothing the process for shippers.

Handling more less-than-truckload (LTL) freight than any other third-party logistics (3PL) company in North America, C.H. Robinson has built technology that automates a time-consuming but crucial task: correctly classifying freight.

The company says this new agent forms part of a growing fleet of AI tools - with more than 30 already live - that are performing tasks once seen as too complex to automate.

“We have a fleet of over 30 AI agents performing tasks that had defied automation for decades,” says Arun Rajan, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer.

“Now we’re building AI agents that help our AI agents.”

How LTL shipping depends on freight classification

LTL freight involves different companies’ cargo sharing the same truck. This could mean anything from heavy auto parts to lightweight retail items, so precision matters.

Shipments are priced based on the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) system—a grid of thousands of classes and codes based on the freight’s weight, size and handling needs. These codes determine how much space and weight a shipment is expected to take up.

Getting it wrong can mean delays, inspections and higher charges.

The challenge is that many shippers either don’t know the correct classification or guess it, often leaving out vital information when they tender a shipment request.

“Many LTL shippers are unaware or uncertain of the classification for their freight,” says Greg West, Vice President for LTL.

“So when they email us a tender, the freight class and code might be missing or incorrect. This is bound to increase with the massive overhaul of the national LTL freight classification system.

"So we built an AI agent that determines the correct class and code for a shipment and assists another of our AI agents in turning that tender into an accurate order in our system.”

With the July changes to the NMFC codes, these mistakes are expected to rise. C.H. Robinson’s new agent steps in to catch those errors and fix them before they become costly.

Automating the process

This AI agent takes unstructured shipment requests, often arriving by email, and analyses them to find out the correct classification. It does the kind of work that used to fall to a human looking up each individual item. In practice, that meant about 10 minutes per shipment.

“Manually looking up or confirming the freight class and code for every emailed LTL tender can easily take a person 10 minutes or more per shipment,” adds Arun.

“For shipments the AI agent is reasoning through for the first time, it can choose a freight classification in about 10 seconds. After getting more training on that type of freight from our LTL experts, it takes only three seconds. Unlike a person, the AI agent can also handle hundreds of LTL shipments at once and determine the freight classification for all of them simultaneously. So far, that’s saving over 300 hours a day.”

In its first few months, the AI agent has been handling around 2,000 orders a day. That has pushed C.H. Robinson’s automation of LTL orders up from around 50% to over 75%.

“Before generative AI, half of our LTL orders were automated by way of customers using our global shipper platform or direct connectivity between our tech and their tech. We have the freight classifications for those shippers baked into our system,” continues Greg.

“Where this new AI agent is particularly useful is assisting with orders for our small-to-medium business customers, who are heavy users of both LTL shipping and email. Now that this agent is helping with shipping requests that come in by email, over 75% of all our LTL orders are automated.”

Bracing for the July deadline

“C.H. Robinson’s track record of LTL innovation sets the standard for our industry,” says Michael Castagnetto, President of North American Surface Transportation.

“We were first to adopt the new electronic bill of lading. We’re using AI-powered tech to help customers predict and save on their accessorial charges. Now with generative AI, the agents we’ve built are giving our customers an advantage by responding to LTL quote requests and processing LTL orders in numbers that are growing every day.”

Once the updated NMFC classifications take effect, the agent will be ready to use the new codes immediately.

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